Stephen Twigg – 2012 Speech to Labour Party Conference

Below is the text of the speech made by Stephen Twigg, the Shadow Secretary of State for Education, made at Labour Party conference on 4th October 2012.

Thank you.

And thank you to Dave and Joan, you inspire us all. It’s a privilege to do this job when you meet young people like Joan. She came here having claimed political asylum.

Despite all the barriers, she became a grade A student. Conference – she is One Nation Britain.

I learned aspiration from my Mum. A bright girl from the East End of London, she left school at 15. My Mum always told me, “That’s not going to happen to you. You’re going to university.”

I also had great teachers. Funnily enough, one of them was called Mr Coward.

Mr Coward gave me the courage to become the first pupil from Southgate Comprehensive to go to Oxford. He shows the power of a great teacher.

I say this to Michael Gove – stop running down our teachers and young people. Celebrate their ambition instead.

I love doing this job, but I couldn’t do it without the support of the frontbench team.

So thank you to Sharon, Kevin, Karen and Lisa in the Commons and Bev and Maggie in the Lords.

And thanks to my Policy Commission co-chair, the GMB’s one and only Mary Turner. Thanks Mary.

Our central challenge is how to get our economy growing.

We’re not the biggest nation. So for a country like ours, it’s smart to be smart.

Education isn’t just a moral right, it is an economic good too.

The Tories claim they want high standards. But they’ve put standards at risk. The biggest cuts to education since the ‘50s, and teacher numbers falling.

Young people held back. Like the thousands who lost out, when their GCSE English was downgraded.

Michael Gove washed his hands of responsibility.

So much for “we’re all in this together”. His message to young people is – you’re on your own.

It’s no wonder that One Nation Conservatives don’t agree with him. Ken Baker, the former Education Secretary says Labour is right on vocational education, and the Conservative MP Graham Stuart says Michael Gove’s new exams are ill conceived and incoherent.

We know Michael Gove is wrong, but even Conservatives think he’s extreme and out of touch.

He claims to be in favour of rigour. But he is totally outdated. Rote learning and regurgitating facts. An exam system from the 1950s.

We believe young people need both knowledge and skills. The rigour of the future, not the past.

As well as the basics, we need creative subjects like music, design and art.

And practical subjects like engineering and IT. But what do the Tories do? They focus only on the Ebacc and say the engineering diploma, a course designed by Rolls Royce, is worthless.

How out of date can you get?

And how does removing the right to work experience help young people get ready for a job? Now more than ever, young people need quality work experience.

In primary school, companies should provide ‘work discovery’ programmes and in secondary school, every young person should get work experience linked to their studies not just two weeks of photocopying.

Labour will meet the challenge of every young person staying on until 18.

As Ed said on Tuesday, there is already a clear path for those who do A Levels and then go to university.

But we need a clear path for the forgotten 50 per cent.

So we will create a new, gold standard vocational qualification – the Technical Baccalaureate.

Michael Gove wants narrow, elitist education. We are the party of One Nation education.

Instead of going back to O-levels, we will look forward. Instead of coming up with a plan on the back of an envelope, we will engage the experts – in business and education.

So I am delighted to announce today that Professor Chris Husbands, from the Institute of Education will be chairing a taskforce to take forward these ideas.

Every young person must study English and Maths until 18. Incredibly, we are one of the only developed countries in the world that doesn’t require this.

Barely one in ten pupils who are on free school meals at age 11, study English and Maths after the age of 16.

That is a huge injustice. So I hope you will join our campaign, by signing up on the website or tweeting using the hashtag “3Rsto18”.

We will build this One Nation Education system by raising standards for all.

Take Joan’s school, United Learning’s Paddington Academy, set up under Labour. Five years ago, only a quarter of pupils got 5 good GCSEs. Now, three quarters do and they sent their first pupil to Cambridge.

That’s raising aspiration for you.

Or take Barlow Hall Primary, here in Manchester. In 2004, standards were well below average. Today, with a cutting edge Reading Recovery centre, it is a school transformed.

We take on those who say “you can’t turn coal into diamond”.

Michael Gove has a plan for some schools and some pupils. We have a plan for all schools and all pupils.

I want every school to have the freedom to innovate, not just some. To shape their own curriculum. To develop specialisms. To have a longer school day.